Some characteristic personalities absorb public attention in Ireland.
Mr. John O'Connell has discovered that Mr. "John Foster" at Halesworth in England is not Mr. "Thomas Campbell Foster" at BalLina in Ireland ; and he has duly apologized to the outraged "Commissioner," whom he had so freely addressed with a style of language current in the Irish part of London. Messrs. O'Con- nell imputed to the Commissioner, among other delinquencies, personal ugliness : but that was when they supposed him to be identical with the Mr. John Foster of Halesworth, whose pub- lished works are limited to the celebrated "liar and blackguard" letter : it would solve an interesting historical question, if Mr. John O'Connell would explicitly declare whether he retracts the charge of ugliness as well as the others. Also, as Mr. John is an Irish historian, it would be obliging if he were to declare whether personal beauty is an indispensable qualification for the public service in Ireland—for admission, say, to the Repeal As- sociation; and if so, what is the standard of beauty in Ireland ? The impudent insinuation of the Dublin Pilot, that Archbishop Crolly was mad, has receiveck indignant contradiction from the Nation newspaper, and fromiBhe clergy of the Archbishop's own diocese, Armagh. The Nation goes beyond mere denial, and proceeds to a vehement and unscrupulous personal attack on the editor of the Pilot: the latter is in turn very indignant at the personalities of the Nation; but who can pity the journalist hat so flagrantly violated decency, when he is served with a taste of his own way of assault ?
Some further accounts have come to light respecting the new Repeal phenomenon, Mr. Thomas Lloyd of Beechmont. He is, it seems, such an Ultra-Protestant, so hostile to the "abomina- tions" of the Roman Catholic Church, that, despairing of Govern- ment patronage for Evangelical Ultra-Protestant Dissent, he will help Mr. O'Connell to repeal the Union, with a view to pulling down Maynooth College. This is a pregnant illustration of Home Tooke's fallacious metaphor about two men travelling on the same road together though they mean to go different dis- tances. Mr. O'Connell has no objection to travel with Mr. Lloyd so far as Repeal of the Union,—but what after that? Meanwhile, Mr. Lloyd has paid his fare in advance.
The schism among the Orangemen has assumed a personal cha- racter: the "Grand" Lodge of Ulster has been insulted ; its "grand" officers were set aside at a public meeting in Enniskillen, and the slighted "grand" individuals are nobly supported by the Lodge. At the public meeting, the name of " Orange " was discussed with a view to change it. As the question, being in Ireland, turns upon personalities and words, it must have assumed a very serious aspect indeed.
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